Finding El Dorado…

(by peter)

I suppose there are first times for everything.

The August edition of Decanter magazine was the first ever of this august wine title to run with a cover article dedicated to South America.

Decanter’s Steven Spurrier contributed the introduction while I picked 15 of my favourite producers from Chile and Marina Gayan MW chose 10 of her favourites from across the other side of the Andes in Argentina.

The piece has already attracted a fair bit of attention both in South America and here, which is great to see because these are producers and regions that deserve recognition.

It’s invidious to have to pick favourites but two wines (and producers) currently getting me hot under the collar are the Aristos Chardonnay 2007 (c£40, Justerini & Brooks) and the Secano Estate Sauvignon Gris 2010 by Viña Leyda (£8.49, Marks & Spencer). These brilliant wines are evidence that Chile has a very bright future indeed.

You can access the full article in pdf format (courtesy of Decanter/IPC Media) by clicking on the link below:

Decanter South America cover story

On a related matter, I recently discovered that my Wines of Chile book is now available in a Kindle edition via Amazon for the princely sum of £12.99.

(You can view the Amazon page in question here.)

This is great news because the print edition is now very hard to find. While it is admittedly little dated now (it was published in November 2006), I intentionally set out to write the book so it would age gently rather than abruptly (although this is easier said than done in a country which evolves as lightening-fast as Chile).

Nevertheless, hopefully those technophiles with the capacity to buy and read the book on their Kindle will agree that this book’s digital debut is a success…